Students and Staff Provide a Choice for Youth from At-Risk Environments
To hear about The Choice Program from a former fellow, click the play button below.
Over the past two decades, The Choice Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center has served more than 18,000 youth and their families in some of Maryland’s most challenged communities. The staff, fellows and mentors of The Choice Program have provided continuous support to youth from at-risk environments in the Baltimore area through intensive supervision and case management services. The program is recognized nationally by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
“Eighty percent of our youth remain in the community at the completion of their program, and 85% do not acquire new delinquent charges,” said Lamar Davis, director of the Choice Program. “But numbers tell only part of the story. Choice stories are stories of struggle and challenge but above all, they are stories of achievement, triumph and hope. Past and present staff have thousands of individual accounts that speak to the hard work and resiliency of our youth and families.”
Along with staff and Choice fellows, UMBC students also have the opportunity to work as mentors at College Night, a weekly event that brings Choice program participants to the campus for a night of activities. Students volunteer to be mentors for a variety of reasons, and for some, it helps solidify their professional goals.
“College Night really appealed to me because I knew I’d be working with older kids,” said Stephanie Tkaczyk ’10, a Choice Program intern and secondary education major. “At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into teaching. But after serving as a mentor I realized I wanted to teach, and this is giving me the best experience I can get.”
Like Tkaczyk, Jynease Emerson ’11 is also an education major who became interested in volunteering with the program. She and Tkaczyk serve as the program’s interns.
“This program has given me such a different perspective,” Emerson said. “You don’t know anything until you experience that first semester as a mentor.”
Rian Russell ’10, a master’s student studying public policy and coordinator for College Night, said the event is different for every participant but has a similar outcome.
“This can be a really positive environment,” Russell said. “Participants are exposed to a college campus, and many of them haven’t thought or talked about college before. We aim to foster caring adult relationships and a sense of stability through College Night.”
For many of the staff and volunteers involved with Choice, that element of transformation encourages them to stay involved with the program by mentoring at-risk youth.
“I am dedicated to Choice because it’s an organization that believes in each person’s ability to transform their lives and change their direction,” said Davis. “Choice encourages a can-do attitude among youth, families, staff, community members and volunteers.”
This year The Choice Program celebrates its 20th year at UMBC. They have also installed and displayed “Choosing to Make a Difference,” a mural created by lead artist Joey Tomassoni and ten youth from the Choice Program’s Capitol Heights office near Washington D.C. Parents and Choice Program staff also collaborated on the concept and imagery of the mural, which grew out of discussions about the program’s positive impact on participants. The mural can be seen on the wall near commonvision in The Commons.
For more information on The Choice Program, visit http://www.choiceprograms.org/.
(12/18/08)
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